Press Release
Transferring Water Supply Management System to Private Companies at Purbachal is a Great Harm and Betrayal of Trus

After paving path for the corrupt capitalists to loot public money in the electricity sector, the Hasina government has now decided to hand over the water supply management in the Purbachal new town to a private company whose sole aim is to make profits only, not to protect the consumers. And this is taking place all in the name of “bringing efficiency” in this sector. Under the new arrangement, a private consortium comprising United Water (Suqian) Company of China and Delcot Water of Bangladesh will lay out a distribution network of about 320 kilometres along the roads reaching every plot in the said project (Daily Star, January 09, 2020). To justify the privatization program of colonialist institution IMF (International Monetary Fund), this hypocrite government has sunk so low that it does not even feel an iota of shame to portray itself as ‘inefficient’ to run a simple water management system. This failure to run a basic utility service efficiently for the public has unveiled the true nature of the so-called ‘development miracle’ that this government brags about. The immediate consequence of privatization of this common resource management would be the ‘price hikes’ as the private companies would make profit while supplying it to the common people. Thus, the consumers will be forced to bear the burden of higher payments on loans that this private company will take for its operation which includes the interest, taxes and overheads on the capital. On top of that, this anti-people government has agreed to provide Tk 56 crore every year in maintenance which will be looted from people’s pockets.

O People in Bangladesh, crimes of Hasina government are going on unabated for which we are being pushed into harsh living conditions. After wasting huge amount of public funds in favor of the capitalist companies in the electricity sector, it is now ready to commit another crime in the water management sector that will bring further misery to us. The fact of the matter is that the ‘fake growth and development’ narrative of this government is taking its last breath with severe crisis of fund. Hence, to attract more loans from colonialist institution like IMF, Hasina government is implementing their programs of privatization of public resources which never benefitted any poor nation, rather worsened their economy since those governments impose further taxes on the people to pay back those loans. This injustice and suffering will not stop if we still witness silently the ruling of capitalist democracy and accept the misery that these IMF programs are bringing about.

The imminent Khilafah Rashida (rightly guided Caliphate) will ensure that water resources will not be treated as a ‘commodity’, rather a ‘right’ of the citizen that is placed upon it by the Sharia. Islamic economic system will immediately abolish all such anti-people contracts with private companies and take charge of managing the public and state property on the basis of ‘hukm shariah’ since Islam does not permit granting the ownership of the public resources to any private party as these resources belong to the Ummah. RasulAllah (saw) said,

«الْمُسْلِمُونَ شُرَكَاءُ فِي ثَلَاثٍ فِي الْكَلَإِ وَالْمَاءِ وَالنَّارِ»

“The Muslims are partners in three things: water, pasture and fire (energy).” [Abu Dawood]

Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir in Wilayah Bangladesh